Performance artist returns home for new project

Sunday 25 November 2018

An award-winning performance artist and painter has come back to Jersey for his latest project exploring what it means to be an "outsider", which will debut in the island next week.

'MAGPIE' by Robert J. Anderson, who has been on an artist residency with ArtHouse Jersey, aims to explore "the power of one-on-one interactions between audience members and performers" as the piece unfolds within a "highly stylised art installation".

Robert explains that, in the same vein as much of his other work, 'MAGPIE' will explore themes of "outsiderness, perhaps loneliness or a kind of detachment" amongst what he described as "a rich tapestry of emotions".

"The performers offer specific ways in which the audience may interact with them as they navigate the piece very much in their own way, taking their own cues from it and forming their own responses," the performance artist told Express.

Ahead of his performances next week, Robert, a Brighton University and New York Studio School-trained "multi-disciplinary artist", spoke to Express...

After a summer of working on performances in America, one of which won the prestigious Mercedes Matter and Ambassador Middendorf Award for Performance in New York, Robert was keen to return home for his latest piece. 

Pictured: Robert James Anderson has been on an artist residency at ArtHouse Jersey in Chateau Vermont this month (Robert James Anderson).

He said: “With MAGPIE specifically I knew that I wanted to work in Jersey… and with ArtHouse Jersey, who are wonderfully accommodating and committed to openly and generously nurturing creative professionals and their projects.”

This ‘return’ and the complexities that come with it, Robert says, were something he had to grapple with when making the piece itself: “Growing up here in the 90’s as a queer youth was not fun. It was extremely alienating and motivated me to look much further afield for a sense of acceptance.

“I suppose the biggest transformation in MAGPIE came when I reached a kind of impasse where all of these strong personal convictions and social observations were trying to make their way out of me in the form of a piece of entertainment. 

“I have been laughed at and insulted in the streets here and was now trying to stand up and tell an audience all about that kind of life in the context of a visually enthralling performance art piece.”

Pictured: Robert says that coming home has meant revisiting some painful memories which he explores in his latest piece 'MAGPIE'.

As a result, Robert told Express that it was by returning to the work of artists he admires, like Marina Abramović, Jackson Pollock and Goya, that he was able to move past this frustration: “I previously felt I needed to shout. Now, with the aid of a few other performers, I think the whisper we collectively make can travel much further.”

‘MAGPIE’ involves Robert leading a small ensemble of other performers as well as incorporating elements of film and music. 

Explaining more about the format of the show, Robert said: “I guess you could say MAGPIE is multi-media, but the overall purpose of it is the encounter between performer and spectator, situating it very much within the current definitions of performance art (though as definitions within art continue to broaden, I would not stop you if you chose to call it a sculpture, a painting, or a horse).”

The two performances of ‘MAGPIE’ will take place on 29 and 30 November in the chapel at Chateau Vermont. Tickets for both performances are available online.